Dynamic performance of a slab track-concrete box subgrade under a double-line high speed railway.

Concrete box subgrades constructed from reinforced concrete serve as alternatives to conventional fill subgrades, effectively addressing the scarcity of high-quality fill materials. A hybrid simulation approach that merges coupled dynamics with finite element modelling was adopted for both single-line and double-line ballastless track-box subgrade systems, enabling a comparative analysis of dynamic stress, displacement, and acceleration. The results reveal that, when the two traffic conditions are compared, the dynamic response of the concrete box subgrade under double-line opposing operation shows a marked increase, particularly when the dynamic displacement increases by 80%.

SerpinB1 targeting safeguards against pathological cardiac hypertrophy and remodelling by suppressing cardiomyocyte pyroptosis and inflammation initiation.

Aims: While the pivotal role of inflammation in pathological cardiac hypertrophy and remodelling is widely acknowledged, the mechanisms triggering inflammation initiation remain largely obscure. This study aims to elucidate the role and mechanism of serpin family B member 1 (SerpinB1) in pro-inflammatory cardiomyocyte pyroptosis, heart inflammation, and cardiac remodelling.

Methods And Results: C57BL/6J wild-type, inducible cardiac-specific SerpinB1 overexpression or knockout mice underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) surgery.

Glycerol Modulated Collagen Fibril Evolution and Lamellar Organization for Biomimetic Corneal Substitutes Construction.

Collagen as the main structural component of the cornea exhibits unique and highly organized fibril lamellae, which contribute to the maintenance of corneal structure and transparency. Nevertheless, collagen assembly in vitro to create ideal artificial corneal substitutes with human cornea comparable thickness and optics is still limited. Here, glycerol as a regulator can reconcile collagen thickness, transparency, and permeability, a conflicting goal by current keratoprosthesis strategies.

Accurate Identification Partial Discharge of Cable Termination for High-Speed Trains Based on S-Transform and Two-Dimensional Convolutional Network Algorithm.

Cable termination is an important part of energy transmission in high-speed trains, and it is also a weak link in the insulation. It is important to determine the insulation status of cable terminals by the detection results of partial discharge signals, but the partial discharge signals in the field test circuit are mixed with a large amount of external corona interference, which affects the detection accuracy. This paper proposes a signal recognition model that incorporates Stockwell transform (ST) and 2DCNN, which in combination with wavelet noise reduction can achieve a high-precision classification effect for partial discharge and corona interference with an accuracy rate of up to 98.

Finite Element and Theoretical Analysis of High-Strength Steel-Strand Mesh Reinforced ECCs Under Flexural Load.

This research investigates the flexural performance of slabs reinforced with high-strength steel-strand mesh (HSSM) and engineered cementitious composites (ECCs). By employing finite element analysis (FEA) and theoretical modeling, this study aims to deepen the understanding of how these materials behave under bending stresses. A finite element model was developed to simulate the nonlinear behavior of ECCs during bending, considering critical elements such as tensile and compressive damage, as well as bond-slip interactions between the steel strands and the ECCs.

Optimizing Cement Content in Controlled Low-Strength Soils: Effects of Water Content and Hydration Time.

The Ethylene Diamine Tetra-acetic Acid (EDTA) titration test is widely used for determining cement content, but its reliability is influenced by the hydration process of cement, which is affected by factors such as water content and hydration time. Despite their importance, these factors have received limited attention in existing research. This study explores the relationships between the volume of titrant required for stabilization, cement content, water content, and hydration time.

In Situ Ultrasonic Characterization of Hydrogen Damage Evolution in X80 Pipeline Steel.

A nondestructive evaluation of the hydrogen damage of materials in a hydrogen environment is important for monitoring the running conditions of various pieces of equipment. In this work, a new thermostatic electrolytic hydrogenation in situ ultrasonic test system (In Situ TEH-UT) was developed. The system operates by combining cross-correlation delay estimation and frequency domain amplitude estimation and hence improves measurement accuracy with respect to ultrasonic propagation time and amplitude, allowing in situ ultrasonic evaluation of the hydrogen-charging process in X80 pipeline steel.

Research on the Measurement Technology for Pretension Stress on Small-Sized Bolts Based on the Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Resonance Method.

With the widespread application of small-sized bolts in aerospace and other fields, the demand for measuring their connection structures is increasing. Currently, although ultrasonic longitudinal wave methods are commonly used for bolt pretension stress measurement, their accuracy is limited for small-sized bolts. This paper proposes a piezoelectric acoustic resonance method (PZTAR) for small-sized bolt pretension stress measurement based on acoustic elasticity theory, ultrasonic resonance principles, and a bolt stress-strain model.

Residual Stress Measurement Using EMAT for X80 Pipeline Steel: Effects of Coating Thickness and Surface Roughness Under Low Surface Preparation Requirements.

The residual stress significantly affects the operational safety of oil and gas pipelines. Traditional ultrasonic stress measurement methods require pipeline surface pretreatment, which reduces detection efficiency. EMAT, as a non-contact measurement method, shows promising applications for residual stress detection in oil and gas pipelines.

Computational wear prediction of articular cartilage based on a new anisotropic wear law.

Excessive wear can result in irreversible damage to the cartilage. Experimental studies indicate that cartilage wear is significantly influenced by both the orientation of unidirectionally aligned surface fibers and the biphasic structure of the tissue. Given challenges with invasive in vivo wear experiments, there is a pressing need for computational models to predict wear of the cartilage accurately.

Electrical stimulation as an adjunctive therapy for diabetic ulcers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Diabetic ulcers are chronic wounds that are notoriously difficult to treat, leading to significant physical and psychological distress and increased healthcare costs. Their multifactorial aetiology necessitates long-term interdisciplinary collaboration and various complementary treatment measures. While numerous studies suggest that electrical stimulation (ES) positively impacts diabetic ulcer healing, the robustness and consistency of these findings require further evaluation to optimize clinical application.

Suboptimal distributed cooperative control for linear multi-agent system via Riccati design.

In this paper, we propose a suboptimal distributed cooperative control scheme for the continuous-time linear multi-agent system (MAS) with a specified global quadratic cost functional over both undirected and directed graph scenarios. For undirected graphs, we first derive the cost functional for a given strictly linear feedback distributed protocol. It is shown that the cost functional is upper bounded by a quadratic form of the MAS's initial state, and the minimum upper bound can be derived by solving a parametric algebraic Riccati equation (PARE) depends solely on the algebraic connectivity of the graph and is independent of the largest eigenvalue compared with the existing work.

The restricted intermittent control for high-speed train movement via the full state dependent event-triggered method.

In this paper, the full state dependent event-triggered aperiodic intermittent control (FE-AIC) strategy based on input constraints is introduced to minimize energy consumption and enhance speed tracking accuracy in the high-speed train (HST) operation. Firstly, a dynamic model based on multi-mass-point (MMP) for HST has been established, transforming the cruise control problem into an error asymptotic convergence problem. Secondly, restricted FE-AIC (RFE-AIC) controller is designed separately in the presence and absence of external disturbances to realize tracking objects.

Bioinspired balloon catheter integrated with stretchable "flounder" electrodes under high voltage for uniform pulsed field ablation.

Atrial fibrillation leads to severe diseases such as heart failure and strokes. While catheter ablation is prevalent for the treatment, existing techniques hardly can achieve both tissue selectivity and ablation uniformity. Here, we propose a bioinspired strategy for balloon-based pulsed field ablation (PFA) systems based on "flounder" electrodes.

Progress in Chinese medicine monomers and their nanoformulations on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MIRI) is the entire process of myocardial injury resulting from ischemia and hypoxia following acute myocardial infarction, which involves complicated pathogenesis including energy metabolism disorders, calcium overload, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has attracted intensive attention in the treatment of MIRI owing to its multitarget therapeutic effects and low systemic toxicity. Increasing evidence indicates the promising application of TCM on the protection of cardiomyocytes, improvement of endothelial cell functions and regulation of energy metabolism and inflammatory response.

Unveiling Novel Protein Biomarkers for Psoriasis Through Integrated Analysis of Human Plasma Proteomics and Mendelian Randomization.

Background: Current pharmacological treatments for psoriasis are generally non-specific and have significant limitations, particularly in the realm of targeted biologic therapies. There is an urgent need to identify and develop new therapeutic targets to improve treatment options.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the proteome associated with psoriasis in large population cohorts to discover novel biomarkers that could guide therapy.

Distributed optimal control design with the feed-forward compensator for high-speed train.

The distributed optimal design of high-speed train movement is systematically investigated in this article. A distributed optimal control law is proposed, addressing the train consist of cars coupled by spring buffers, and is affected by aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. A new distributed controller is proposed to decouple the train model by fully removing the in-train force, which greatly simplifies the complexity of calculation.

Investigations on improved Box-Cox sparsity measures for machine condition monitoring.

Sparsity measures are commonly utilized as health indicators for machine condition monitoring. Recently, with the assistance of Box-Cox transformation, kurtosis and negative entropy have been smoothly extended to form Box-Cox sparsity measures (BCSMs). However, traditional BCSMs do not generate sparsity measures that outperform negative entropy, which means it is meaningless to some extent.

Ultra-durable photothermal anti-/de-icing superhydrophobic coating with water droplets freezing from the outside in.

In low-temperature, high-humidity environments, the condensation of water vapor within microstructures can initiate a detrimental cycle of hydrophobic failure, high-adhesion ice formation, and microstructural degradation, thereby limiting the practical application of superhydrophobic coatings in anti-icing and de-icing technologies. Therefore, enhancing the hydrophobic stability and mechanical durability of these coatings under such conditions is imperative. This study presents a novel approach where rigid FeO nanoparticles are encapsulated within porous diatomaceous earth (DME) and combined with high-adhesion acrylic resin (AR), resulting in a superhydrophobic photothermal coating that possesses both active and passive de-icing capabilities, fabricated through a straightforward one-step spraying technique.

Surgery/non-surgery-based strategies for invasive locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer in the era of precision medicine.

Background: Treatments for invasive T non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors have been traditionally individualized and often require multidisciplinary team (MDT) evaluation. Advances in precision medicine may open up new opportunities for these patients.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study, using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, identified TNM NSCLC patients with central structure invasion from 2010 to 2020.

Predicting and optimizing pure electric vehicle road noise via a locality-sensitive hashing transformer and interval analysis.

Pure electric vehicles (PEVs) lack engine noise; thus, the overall noise level within vehicle cabins are reduced. However, due to the absence of engine noise, previously overlooked noise sources are accentuated and detrimentally affect interior noise quality. Road noise is a predominant PEV noise source and significantly contributes to middle- and low-frequency interior noise levels.

Advanced Piezoelectric Materials, Devices, and Systems for Orthopedic Medicine.

Harnessing the robust electromechanical couplings, piezoelectric materials not only enable efficient bio-energy harvesting, physiological sensing and actuating but also open enormous opportunities for therapeutic treatments through surface polarization directly interacting with electroactive cells, tissues, and organs. Known for its highly oriented and hierarchical structure, collagen in natural bones produces local electrical signals to stimulate osteoblasts and promote bone formation, inspiring the application of piezoelectric materials in orthopedic medicine. Recent studies showed that piezoelectricity can impact microenvironments by regulating molecular sensors including ion channels, cytoskeletal elements, cell adhesion proteins, and other signaling pathways.

Deciphering pollution sources and mechanisms controlling groundwater chemistry in a typical dense agricultural plain on Yungui Plateau.

Groundwater is a critical resource for economic growth and livelihoods in the dense agricultural plains of plateaus. However, contaminations from various sources pose significant threats to groundwater quality. Understanding the sources of groundwater contamination and the mechanisms of hydrochemical control is essential for the sustainable development of agriculturally intensive plains.

Plateau hypoxia-induced upregulation of reticulon 4 pathway mediates altered autophagic flux involved in blood-brain barrier disruption after traumatic brain injury.

This study aimed to examine reticulon 4 (RTN4), neurite outgrowth inhibitor protein expression that changes in high-altitude traumatic brain injury (HA-TBI) and affects on blood-brain barrier's (BBB) function. C57BL/6J 6-8-week-old male mice were used for TBI model induction and randomized into the normal altitude group and the 5000-m high-altitude (HA) group, each group was divided into control (C) and 8h/12h/24h/48h-TBI according to different times post-TBI. Brain water content (BWC) and modified Neurological Severity Score were measured, RTN4 and autophagy-related indexes (Beclin1, LC3B, and SQSTM1/p62) were detected by western blot, immunofluorescence technique, and PCR in peri-injury cortical tissues.